A crowd of some 1,500 people took to the streets of the Hungarian capital Budapest on Saturday, December 28 to protest against corruption, particularly tax fraud by large companies.<br /><br />One protester told euronews: “It (the tax fraud) should be investigated and those who are responsible found!”<br /><br />The demonstration was held in the wake of allegations from a whistleblower András Horváth, a former analyst at Hungary’s tax office, NAV. Horváth claims that NAV has been turning a blind eye to up to 3.3 billion euros of tax fraud per year.<br /><br />NAV denies Horváth’s allegations and plans to prosecute him for slander. His home has been searched and documents have been seized from there.<br /><br />Horváth told euronews, “It appears now that the people who expose corruption have to be afraid and not those who are corrupt or commit tax fraud.”<br /><br />Euronews correspondent Andrea Hajagos reported from Budapest: “The amount of money in tax fraud is over one billion euros per year in Hungary, according to official data. And Hungary is not unique in this respect – so András Horváth as asked the European Commission to help with this problem.”
